Enter to win great prizes and support Friends of WFP!

Yesterday marked the launch of Menu for Hope 6, an annual fundraising raffle organized by food bloggers from around the world! This year, the raffle will benefit WFP’s Purchase for Progress program, which helps support local economies and small farmers. 

How does it work? It’s simple!

Food bloggers have generously donated all types of food-related prizes for the raffle – from cookbooks and chocolate to fancy dinners and vacation getaways – and all you have to do for your chance to win is make a donation to Friends of WFP. For each $10 you donate, you earn one virtual raffle ticket which you can use to bid on the prize of your choice! View the full list of wonderful prizes being raffled off, and then donate to Friends of WFP through the Menu for Hope 6 FirstGiving page.

If you'd like to learn more, you can read an interview with Pim Techamuanvivit, Food Blogger and Founder of Menu for Hope, or visit Pim's blog.

On just the second day of the fundraiser, Menu for Hope 6 has already raised more than $6,000 for Friends of WFP!

-Jessica Lennon
Web Associate
Friends of WFP

WFP Pilot Program Shows Promising Results

This year marked the first year of a five-year pilot program to help small farmers in developing countries: Purchase for Progress (P4P).  The aim of the program is to give small-scale farmers access to reliable markets they never had access to before.  The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) uses its purchasing power to buy food from these small-scale farmers, which gives them more incentive to produce more crops because they will have a reliable buyer.  Eventually these countries will become self-sustaining, and with the development of these new markets, locals will in turn be able to get their food from local farmers as the farmers’ incomes increase.  P4P also helps reduce cost because it incurs no large transportation cost. 

The program has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard Buffet Foundation through an $80 million grant.  The program has been implemented in 21 developing countries.  WFP Deputy Executive Director, Sheila Sisulu says that they have seen promising results with P4P.  WFP has noted that while many parts of the world have food shortages, there are also many places where there is food on the market but people just can’t afford it.  P4P looks to decrease prices by using WFP’s large purchasing power so that prices can go down in the long run. 

Within this program, WFP works with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development to help advise farmers on the best seeds and fertilizer to use.  They also advise the farmers on the standards they need their crops to meet in order for WFP to purchase the food from them. 

"By focusing on those small holder farmers, we hope to break the cycle of these farmers selling cheap after harvest and buying dear during the lean season,” said Sisulu.  “When their produce is more and is of high quality, they sell more and they sell high. And, when they have to buy during the lean season, they actually have more in store, but they can afford to buy if they need to.” 

WFP has been seeing a lot of success with this new program.  After the five-year pilot program is over WFP will likely expand these efforts.  This is just one of the many efforts that WFP makes to help people help themselves. 

-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP